Comic Relief being "done over" by BBC Panorama over investments

I see from the headlines that the BBC flagship investigation programme Panorama will tonight  damage the reputation of Comic Relief because the charity's fund managers invest some of its money in tobacco, alcohol and arms firms.

The Church of England got itself into a similar pickle a little while ago over its pension investment in "Wonga".

The question is not whether charities or pension funds should invest in these companies or not. It is what are they doing with their voting powers and influence given by this shareholding. They should be holding companies to account. While I have some sympathy with disinvestment in Big Tobacco if you start not investing in anything to do with alcohol or "arms" manufacturing, where do you stop?

Don't invest in Banks or insurance companies because they are usurious? don't invest in mining stocks or oil extraction because they ruin the environment? don't invest in drug companies since they experiment on animals?

Needless to say the BBC appear to be just a rather hypocritical here. I have just looked at the BBC pension fund and guess what....they have :-

British American Tobacco - £37.8 million
Imperial Tobacco Group - £30.9 million
BAE Systems - £25.3 million
Reynolds American - £18.9
SABMiller - £22.3
Diageo - £14.7
Greene King - £8.2

They are full of "sin" stocks and this is just the closed DB scheme. How much is invested in their DC and AVC schemes? It is waste of time to indulge in finger pointing over investment issues. You need to get your hands dirty and engage with companies to try and sort them out, not just running away and dis-investing.

"No Work, No Money, No Doctor"

Tonight I watched a disturbing Panorama programme called "Poor America". You can watch it on BBC iPlayer soon. The coverage of hungry school kids and tent cities of the homeless poor was a pretty appalling thing to watch take place in the
most wealthy country in the world.

But what was really, really horrifying was the mass charity medical clinics for hundreds of Americans with no health insurance.

Many of whom suffer appalling serious medical conditions that would be dealt with immediately by our NHS without question but in the USA they simply cannot afford to get treated. We also saw videos of one of the leading American Republican Presidential candidates appearing to call for child labour and that none of the rest condemn a scenario that someone in a coma with a treatable disease should be allowed to die if he didn't have the correct medical insurance. 

"No Work, No Money, No Doctor" is what one of the Americans queueing up for treatment outside the  clinic said. Is this our NHS future under Lansley reforms?

Panorama - All Work and Low Pay

Check out last night's BBC TV Panorama expose here of UK work exploitation and pay cuts.  The picture right is a frame from the programme which featured the recent strike by Scottish "Charity"
Quarriers over a 20-25 pay cut for their staff.

In probably one of the worlds worse PR performances the TV presenter asked the Quarriers CEO why he wasn't having a 20% pay cut himself? He responded that it would not make any difference if he cut his own pay.

No difference...hmmm... apart from the obvious arguments about leadership and setting an example, surely it would make a difference to costs if the management senior management team were to "share the misery" equally and take 20-25% cuts in their pay (and perks)?  Don't CEO's "get it" that organisations were there is such blatant inequalities end up being "failing" organisations in the same way as the book "The Spirit Level", argues (convincingly in my view) that countries that are more equal are more successful in every aspect.

The programme is on BBC iPlayer until 16 October 2011.